Part 45: Chapter XXXVIII - Funny how things turn out, isnt it?

Dreaming Girl: Do you remember the bog you passed on your way here? That's Crookfen, the place where we Forest Maidens perform rituals of prayer for the Last Leaf. The Order of Melphina protects us from monster attacks while we pray. It's all so romantic.

Precocious Child: Look at this flower garden. See how the leaves seem to be protecting the beautiful flowers? This is much like the Order and the Maidens. A knight vows to protect a maiden with his life until death do they part.

A thousand years ago, there was a great kingdom in the desert. Its military was renowned around the world. And within that force was the queensguard  the Mantroskylo. Their prowess in battle is still sung in legend today. They were heroes who sealed countless wild monsters. A brotherhood who protected their queen like an iron wall. Skilled warriors who could win while outnumbered a thousand to one. However, they were eventually destroyed by their own strength. They turned into monsters, and turned upon the Imperator. The Imperator immediately struck back. After a fierce battle on both sides, the Imperator took the Tao Tie and sealed the Mantroskylo.Sounds like an old story. Whats the big deal? Young traveler, this is no simple nursery-tale. After a thousand years, the Mantroskylo have returned.

The deserts plenty dangerous, but its worth bravin it for all the treasure hidden out there. Rumor going round the guild is that beneath the Great Sand Sea is the ruins of the greatest of the Old Kingdoms  the Kingdom of Glenys.

Dude, suck it up. Are you asking for it!? Yes, I think you are! You don't know who I am, do you?No. Well, you should! I'm the magnificent and totally awesome Darien, and I KNOW people! Important people, at that! I have connections! I know the Marquis of Athlum!Really? Im surprised! How do you like that, huh!? We're buds, we're homies, we're BFFL.I am truly fascinated. Tell me, what is he like? I call him Dave or Davey, depending on my mood. He lets me, you know.Do tell us more. ... Wipe that look of disbelief off your face! It's totally true. It's totally 100% not made up!Of course The pearls of wisdom that flow from my mouth are Melphina's greatest treasure. No! Verily, they are treasures to the whole world. The universe, even! Anyway, anyway, I'm going to do you a favor and test you.Wait, what? Bring me the famous holy chalice from my hometown. Then I might respect you a little. I don't need your respect. P-preposterous! W-why wouldn't you want respect from me!? Fine, fine. I'll do it. I knew it! I knew it! Why didn't you say so in the first place? I'll wait here. Off with you. Oh, by the way. I'm not going to tell you where my hometown is. Figure it out for yourself! Haha!

Accepted quest: Darien

Some qsiti named Darien dared me to bring him the sacred chalice from his hometown. Bring it on, punk! ...Wait, where is his hometown?

Shouldn't you be off to Mel... er, my hometown to get the chalice? Don't you want my respect!?

I found out that Darien is from Melphina. Ha! But I have no idea where the chalice is...

Darien is the kind of character who could be really obnoxious if handled improperly. But I think that his over-the-top behavior and outrageous bluster is kind-of charming. This sidequest is also interesting because its not about fighting as it is learning about Dariens backstory. So lets get to it:

So I heard this place has some kind of important chalice? .. You wish to know about Melphina's holy chalice, you say? ...It is true that this town has kept a holy chalice for centuries. Your interest is appreciated, but... what do you want with this information?I dont suppose I could borrow it for a little bit? The chalice cannot be taken out of town, much less handed to a stranger. If that is what you have come here for, then I am afraid we cannot help you.Its not for me, theres a guy in Elysion who wants it. What? You came from Elysion? Then maybe you've seen a qsiti by the name of Darien? I'm sorry, it's a big city. It'd be too much of a coincidence if you did know him. He left town out of guilt after an incident, but everyone's forgiven him by now. Yet he still doesn't return... Even the daughter of that shopkeeper has forgiven him. *sigh* What a stubborn young man...

Farther along we can see a kid with a red bubble, but all he says is this for now.

Uh, hey lady, do you know a qsiti called Darien?

I told him I'd forgive him, but to be honest, I'm not sure I can. It's all his fault that that poor girl...Which poor girl? Ah, I'm sorry. I don't mean to rant a complete stranger. But whenever I see Goster, I know he's still in pain... No, its okay. What happened? I remember that day as if it were yesterday. Id never seen Goster so angry, nor Darian so crestfallen. In the end, I think Darien left because of Goster. Now that its all over, I wonder how he feels about it?

Well, hello there. You're not from around here, are you? Are you lost?Do you know a Darien? What? You want to know about Darien? Well... I know that he used to live here, but not much else. Sorry, I haven't lived here for that long myself. My husband was born in this town. Maybe he can answer whatever questions you have. ...Goodness, where is he!? He's supposed to be working, but I don't see him... Ooh, that man is asking for it!

We need to track down Goster to proceed. Luckily there arent many hiding spots in this town.

Do you know Darien? You have questions about Darien? What are ya, his spy or somethin'? Get outta here! I got nothing to say to you!Could you just-? Was that so hard to understand? Buzz off! I ain't talking to ya! I'm on my break. If the old lady sees you, I got no idea what she'll do. Leave. Now.

Clearly we need someone with better leverage if were to pry open Gosters jaws.

I found your husband, hes by the town entrance. What? You met him by the town entrance? Well, well. So that's where he decided to skip off to today... Excuse me, but I must be off. Someone needs to be taught a lesson!

There you are, HONEY!!! Ack! Wh-what are you doing here!? It was you, wasn't it!? You ratted me out! Get ready to pay for... Shut your mouth! Y-yes, dear! Not only do I catch you slacking off, but you're about to place the blame on someone else or your laziness!? You'd better get back to work before I get really mad... Do you hear me!? Y-yes, loud and clear... I'm so sorry you had to see that. Oh yes, it seemed like you had a question for my husband? Go right ahead, he'll answer anything you want. ...Right, sweetie? Well, my job here is done. Ta-ta for now... I-I didn't think I'd get out of that alive... Dammit, I gotta get back to work and now I'm stuck answering your dumb questions!? Fine, ask away. You want to know what happened with me and Darien, then?Yeah. ...Guess I might as well tell you. He... Darien... He killed my little sister. I won't forgive him. I got no reason to. But I can't stand the thought of him dyin' in the gutter without payin' for what he did to her, either... I been waitin' and waitin' for him to come back, but it doesn't look like he is. That all you needed to know?Yeah. If you wanna know more about Darien, ask Bino. They were real close. I really gotta go now. See yas.

What can you tell me about Darien?Bino: You want to know about Darien? Hmm, where do I start? He's a simple guy, but really sensitive. He used to live here, but not anymore. I don't know where he is now.I heard he got run out of town after killing a girl.Bino: uh? You heard that he killed someone and got run out of town? Haha! That's a great story. You can't tell, but Darien's a really nice guy. He couldn't kill anyone. There was this one incident, though... Darien left shortly afterwards. Why are you so interested in him?I met him in Elysion and he asked me to get him some chalice thing from here.Bino: What!? You met him? And he asked you to bring him the holy chalice? Oh, I get it. He's still... Alright. My grandpa's in charge of guarding the chalice. You can find him around the town entrance. Good luck!

Yeah. I see. I understand what's going on... ... Fine. The chalice is yours.Wait, really? Make certain it gets to Darien. And give him a message for me. ...Or is that even necessary? The chalice may be enough of a message. Never before has the chalice been left in the hands of a stranger. He must know what it means for me to be doing this. Be safe on your journey back to Elysion.I will, thanks.

Obtained Cracked Chalice!Cracked Chalice  A holy chalice belonging to Melphina. It is cracked in several places.

I got my hands on a cracked chalice. Is this what he was talking about? I guess I should show it to Darien, at least.

Hahaha! Don't feel bad. I knew you would never pull it off. I could show you a thing or two about...Here you go. W-why do you have the chalice? Was it the old man? It was him, wasn't it?! Huh, this thing is... Oh, I get it... W-well, whatever. Props to you. You're tougher than you look. I'm a man who keeps his word. I guess I have no choice but to join your party.Wait a minute! Huh? That wasn't what we promised? Really? Oh, well. Bygones. So you're going to come find me in the guild when you need my genius mind, right? Right!?Reward: 25GCompleted quest: Darien

I handed the cracked chalice to Darien. He looked really surprised, but now he thinks I'm cool and wants to be part of the gang.

The hilariously cheap reward is funny. Head on over to Elysions guild to hire him.

Darien

More a danger to himself than to others, this troublemaker is oddly endearing, if very strange.

Comments
Recruitable after completing his quest, Darian is a solid addition to the party. He starts with a healthy amount of arts learned, and he has the second tier of Lotions. He knows a lot of good Herbs, but you should probably turn off everything except Vivification to encourage him to use Eye Cream to level Lotions (important for getting the status-effect removing Lotions).

This is one guy you dont have to worry about him falling into Scout because he starts out there, and has no chance to get into a Mystic/Balance class. Hes a pretty decent character. Starting out with that stuff makes him a great fit in the party.

Tags: Combat, Healer, Lotions, Items

Were going to Nagapur, but not for the main plot. So lets head to the pub.

Trendy Girl: Isnt that exciting?Bartender: Memories bear more importance than material objects. However, objects are necessary to conjure up memories.Trendy Girl: Then buy me something.

Were here for the woman clad in silver.

Sure. My homeland was destroyed by a terrible man. I've sworn to get the revenge on him and return my home to its former glory. But I do not have the strength to do it alone...So what do you want from me? I've heard that a strong fighter lives in Dillmoor... One skilled not only in combat, but in leadership as well. I want to meet him, and learn his techniques. I am sure that with that knowledge, I could return honor to my homeland! Would you be kind enough to lead me there? Sure, if you want. Thank you! ...Oh, I almost forgot. My name is Glenys. Anyway, let's get going to Dillmoor!

Accepted quest: Wisdoms Echo

Note that before her name is revealed, she is called Old-Fashioned Woman. I think thats significant.

Here? This place has been abandoned for years. I was here a couple months ago and there wasnt anyone here. Im sure this key can be of use.Obtained Plateau Key!A guest union has joined the party.

Going to Dillmoor as Glenys's bodyguard. We have the key to some underground area that's supposed to be around there.

I re-organized my unions after picking up Darien. Caedmon was requested to lead a union, so Ive done that, and added Emmy in as leading a fourth. Caedmon and Emmas unions only have 3 members. Rhagoh and Maddox are still in the active party, but Rhagoh will be gone after this dungeon. Leshau is now back on the bench with the addition of Darien.

Glenys has joined us as a guest union. She uses Katanas, and has One-Handed and Power Grip arts. Ill probably turn off her One-Handed ones though, as her Power Grip is more advanced and she gets pretty good with Power Grip arts. Shes another good Remedies user, starting out with Revitalize. That brings us up to 4 Revitalize users  Rush, Pagus, Emmy and Glenys.

class changed to Cavalier!

Rush has left the Ranger class behind in favor of the Remedies/Combat class. This was likely to happen sooner or later, and so Im not bothered by it.

Hey, what are you doing? Dont touch it! I Im sorry. It just seemed so lonely. Lonely? It lost its hometown just like me. It spoke to you? Not exactly, it was more like a feeling. You probably cant understand. Actually, I think I might. Anyway, lets move on. The entrance has to be around here somewhere.

Course!

We dont immediately transition into a new dungeon. We can actually walk a little way into this one.

Welcome to Aveclyff. As you can tell from the screenshot, this is one of the largest dungeons in the game. For that reason, Im not going to do a video of it.

Lets keep our wits about us from here, okay?Right

I found the entrance to the underground area we're looking for! Aces! Now we just need to get to the bottom floor.

Aveclyff is half-destroyed, making what would be a simple journey into a long trip through a labyrinth. We start on the upper level and need to get down to the lowest level. There are no stairs, the only way down is through elevators.

But theres no way to bring up an elevator from a different floor. On top of that, fallen debris can block the movement, so we cant always go from one place to another.

class changed to Master Marauder!

Thats the elevator we need, but we cant pass that gap in the floor, so we have to take the long way around.

We want the left-most yellow line. The farthest left one is a door which is barred shut.

I hate vultures.

As I said, no shortcuts. We cant get down to the lowest floor.

We need to pass through each of these doors to reach the elevator in the upper middle.

Youre not missing much without a video. Fights are easy to avoid, except around the elevators.

That elevator can never stop on the central floor.

Another gap, another detour.

Finally, weve reached the bottom floor.

The games pretty much stop at this point, youve basically got free reign to roam around the bottom floor, more or less. There are still some barred doors and fallen ceilings blocking you out.

This happens to me a lot. Im expecting it by now. Anyhow, I'm sure he's still here - honestly, there aren't many other places he could go. Most likely one of these beasts is him. Come along, Rush! Keep your eyes open for anything strange, alright?Im not sure what qualifies as strange in my life anymore.

We got to the bottom floor of Aveclyff, but I don't see anybody. Glenys wants me to pay attention to any weirdness around us.

This quest is pretty important for those doing a low BR run and those who like to grind. Normally, enemies in dungeons do not respawn until you leave to the world map. Anything you kill stays dead, and once you leave, your chain count gets reset. But for this quest only, there are 20 of these Landworms at the bottom, and after you kill some of them, they instantly respawn. Theyre also really easy to kill. Using this, you can grind up arts and stats for your units indefinitely, depending only on your patience for boredom.

I do not have a high tolerance for it. I might try a bit of it for bonus videos to try and grind enough arts out so I can get videos of all the arcanas, but thats not a guarantee.

Moreover, there are some drawbacks to using this method. Youll want to delay doing this quest until you have your final party before you start to grind. Some really good party members are available really, really late in the game, and saving the grinding that late is pretty questionable.

Even if you dont save the grinding quite that late, youll still be forced to miss out on two pretty good unique leaders who wont get the benefit of the grinding, and thus wont be that useful in comparison.

Because A. I want Glenys in my party, and B. I want Glenys in my party right now, I am doing this quest.

This is the start of a landworm fight after doing one previous landworm fight.

Once you have a fight with more than 26 unions in it, it wraps back around to A. You can keep on indefinitely fighting Landworms and grinding, as long as you dont finish the quest. But Im going to finish it off anyway.

Once you have a whole bunch of Landworms following you, the boss materializes and you can fight it.

Mission: Defeat the Mantroskylo!

So this Master Glenys is looking for was a Mantroskylo? But theyve been gone for 1000 years. How would anyone even know enough about one of them to know where to find this one? Huh.

Anyway, in addition to the Vile Plant Mantroskylo, weve also got some Landworms and a Spiritlord. Just no one target the Spiritlord and you should be okay.

I miss Emmas damage output. She gets cursed.

Glenys does not, however.

So much for that cast of Bluff.

Thats a substantial punch for a normal attack.

Rushs union is already on the way to kill and then revive Emmys Squad, so this doesnt matter much.

Youll be fine now. Thank you!

I can finally get my Morale up.

And the results are clear  that attack did very little.

And neither did this one.

Finally.

Even though only Davids union has been fighting it all this time, it was still pretty low on health.

Which will trigger first, the Omnistrike, or the Blackout?

Oh, a critical Omnistrike.

21k damage.

And we already have the first Remedy that can restore KOed unions. Its got a huge AP cost, but itll get more reasonable as our AP pool grows. It shouldnt take too long before some of our other units learn it either, since it only requires you to reach Revitalize II and then get a Mystic Chance.

So you got what you were looking for? Forgive me for being so abrupt, but we must return to Nagapur.The guest union has left the party.

So the master's famous technique was a battle formation he had created himself. I admit, I expected something different...Its not something that can really help if youre alone, I guess. Well, maybe someone with your knowledge of tactics can make the best use of this technique. Perhaps you can help me avenge my people, and I can help you accomplish your goals as well. Yeah, I could use all the help I can get.Obtained Honor of Oath!Honor of Oath  Given to those in the queensguard of the ancient desert kingdom.Obtained Batwings! Youve learned a new formation!Completed quest: Wisdoms Echo

I know I still have a lot to work on, but... Please, let me join your group! I'll be waiting at the guild, whenever you need me.

The person we were looking for turned into a monster, so we slew him and got a formation scroll. Score! Glenys disappeared soon after that.

Whenever I need you, huh? Hows now? Does now work for you? So let's head over to the Nagapur Guild. I guess the Honor of Oath came off of the Mantroskylo, like the Honor of Determination we got in Chapter 16 did.

Comments
Glenys is recruitable after you complete her first quest, but that quest is notable for being an excellent place for grinding, and if you complete it, you lose that. But nevermind that, Glenys is awesome, so feel free to recruit her right away. Shes also required for two quests later on. She also gets a unique item that she can use as well.

Shes also one of only a couple Unique Leaders whos VAs are known. Shes voiced by Michelle Ruff, who you may have heard of.

Tags: Combat, Healer, Arcana

Glenys in, Rhagoh out!

I cant thank you enough for allowing me to join you.

Anyway, weve recruited all the possible unique leaders for now. We are heading towards Melphina, via the other quest available in Nagapur. That ones got some really great dialogue.